Lecture 2.

Determinant

Lê Xuân Trường

Lê Xuân Trường Lecture 2. Determinant 1 / 11

Determinant of a square matrix

A determinant is a real number associated with every square matrix

Determinant of a 2 × 2 matrix
 
A11 A12
A= ⇒ det(A) = A11 A22 − A12 A21
A21 A22

Example:

1 2
A= ⇒ det(A) = 1.4 − 2.3 = −2
3 4
 
−3 5
B= ⇒ det(A) = −3.1 − 4.5 = −23
4 1

Lê Xuân Trường Lecture 2. Determinant 2 / 11

Minors and cofactors of a 3 × 3 matrix

Minors: Let A = (Aij ) be a square matrix of order 3

remove ith row and jth column
A −−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−→ Mij
then compute the determinant
↓
(i, j )-minor of A
Ví dụ: Consider the matrix  
2 −1 3
A=  1 4 −5 
−3 2 −2
(1, 2)-minor of A: M12 = −17
(3, 1)-minor of A: M31 = −7

Lê Xuân Trường Lecture 2. Determinant 3 / 11

Minors and cofactors of a 3 × 3 matrix

Cofactors: The cofactor of the entry Aij ((i, j )-cofactor) is defined by

(
Mij , if i + j is even
Cij =
−Mij , if i + j is old

Ví dụ: The matrix of cofactors of following matrix

 
2 −1 3
A=  1 4 −5 
−3 2 −2
 
1 17 14
is PA =  4 5 −1 .
−7 13 9

Lê Xuân Trường Lecture 2. Determinant 4 / 11

Determinant of a 3 × 3 matrix

The determinant of the square matrix A can be written as the sum of the
cofactors of any row or column of the matrix multiplied by
the entries that generated them

The cofactor expansion along the i-th row gives:

det(A) = ai1 Ci1 + ai2 Ci2 + ai3 Ci3

The cofactor expansion along the j-th column gives:

det(A) = a1j C1j + a2j C2j + a3j C3j

Lê Xuân Trường Lecture 2. Determinant 5 / 11

Determinant of a 3 × 3 matrix

Calculate the determinant of following matrices

   
1 4 −2 −1 2 2
A =  −5 6 0  and B =  3 1 4
2 1 −3 −2 3 1

Lê Xuân Trường Lecture 2. Determinant 6 / 11

Sarrus’s rule

Example: We can use the Sarrus’s rule as follows

Lê Xuân Trường Lecture 2. Determinant 7 / 11

Remark

The cofactor expansion of determinant can be used for any matrix

Example: Calculate the determinant of follwing matrix

 
3 1 0 2
 −1 2 0 3
A=  1 −2

0 1
2 −1 −2 0

The cofactor expansion along the third column gives:

 
 3 1 2 
4+3
 
det(A) = (−1) (−2) −1 2 3 = 56

 1 −2 1

Lê Xuân Trường Lecture 2. Determinant 8 / 11

Elementary Row Operations

There are three elementary row operations

The first operation is row-switching: (di ←→ dj )

The second operation is multiply a row by a non zero constant:

λ 6 =0
(di −−→ λdi )

The last row operation is adding a multiple of one row to another row
λ ∈R
di −−→ di + λdj

We also have three elementary column operation

Lê Xuân Trường Lecture 2. Determinant 9 / 11

Determinant and elementary operations

If you swap rows or columns, the resulting determinant is the opposite

of the original determinant.

If you multiply a row or column by a non-zero constant, the

determinant is multiplied by that same non-zero constant.

If you multiply a row or column by a non-zero constant and add it to

another row or column, replacing that row or column, there is no
change in the determinant.

Ví dụ: Calculate the determinant of the following matrix

 
1 2 3 4
2 3 4 1
A= 3 4 1 2


4 1 2 3

Lê Xuân Trường Lecture 2. Determinant 10 / 11

Other properties

If two rows (or columns) of a determinant are proportional to each

other then the determinant is equal to zero
The determinant of a lower triangular matrix (or an upper triangular
matrix) is the product of the diagonal entries
det(λA) = λn det(A)
det(AT ) = det(A)
det(AB) = det(A)det(B)

Lê Xuân Trường Lecture 2. Determinant 11 / 11